Among the many issues at which they find themselves at odds, the real estate/media maven's approach to automation is anathema to the Valley as autonomous cars speed ever closer. "You have a potential candidate in Trump where his entire rhetoric is, 'We’re going to bring back all those old jobs, we’re not going to go into the future,'" Aaron Levie, CEO and founder of Box, said this week at Vanity Fair’s New Establishment Summit in San Francisco.

And automation is poised to also make a huge difference in the transportation sector. Autonomous cars and trucks could essentially put more than 4 million truckers, cabbies, and others who earn a living by driving out of work. But automation will open new career paths toward building, deploying, and maintaining the technology, and the next president should thoughtfully and deliberately support them, Levie says.

As autonomous driving takes shape, an innovation-averse president could hamper progress.

As autonomous driving takes shape and enters the public sphere, an innovation-averse president could hamper progress. The US Department of Transportation drafted regulations to support the development of autonomous vehicle technology, and state and local governments are racing ahead to remake themselves into autonomous and new idea-friendly environments, because they see the opportunity.

“The key to autonomy that you have to remember is that it will empower people who are not empowered: states, cities, counties,” said Chamath Palihapitiya, founder and CEO of venture capital firm Social Capital, during the same panel. Autonomy might give those organizations freedom to explore entirely new business models, raising money off novel transportation options to farm back into industries that could replace the old. (Green tech, anyone?) An innovation-shy chief executive, Palihapitiya argued, might stick to the same old mobility script.

Levie and Palihapitiya aren't alone in worrying about a Trump presidency. This summer, 145 executives signed an open letter opposing the Republican nominee, arguing his rhetoric against immigrants and freedom of expression would have a profound dampening effect on the new ideas that drive the economy.

Whoever the president is, he or she will steer the way forward. And it helps to have a driver who's not glued to the rearview mirror.